Now coming off his first loss in the UFC, Jung remains a
frustrating talent to track. Upon his debut in 2019, Jung read as a
fighter that could be patient to a fault, which made it a promising
sign when he blasted Mike
Rodriguez in just 64 seconds in his second UFC fight. Then Jung
followed that up with a tentative performance against Sam Alvey that
somehow went to a split draw, and so “Sseda” went back to being
equal parts promising and baffling. Jung’s last three fights have
followed much the same arc as his first three UFC bouts. He
outwrestled William
Knight and scored a quick knockout of Kennedy
Nzechukwu, suggesting he was finding more comfort in picking
his spots, but then came a July loss to Dustin
Jacoby in which Jung did not show much before getting knocked
out. Jung has shown flashes of just about everything, both positive
and negative, during his six trips to the Octagon, so it will be
fascinating to see what he shows against Clark. A raw but talented
prospect upon his 2016 UFC debut, Clark has developed into a solid
if flawed competitor. He has gained enough experience to avoid the
sudden finish losses that plagued early parts of his UFC career,
allowing him to press things as a powerfully built wrestler with
some decent power. There still is not much defense built into
Clark’s approach. He has enough durability that it now takes
multiple rounds to finish him, but an opponent who can stay
consistently ahead of Clark can make a lot of headway pressing
those advantages. That figures to be the read here unless Jung
shows up in particularly poor form. He may not entirely press the
action, but Clark leaves enough openings—without being much of a
knockout threat himself—that Jung can win an ugly war of attrition
at worst. The pick is Jung via third-round stoppage.
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